An epiphanous moment

MANIFESTO

In writing a post last week, I realized perhaps more than ever that the entire notion of a democratic republic in these United States has pretty much gone the way of the buggy whip. (It was using the Lincoln quote that got to me.)

That is, the idea of a government made up of members of the society that it's supposed to serve—perforce acting upon the ideals of that society—seems absolutely lost. I know that many manifestations of this state of affairs exist—Kevin Drum's wife's statement of five years ago that she felt disaffiliated from the country, Michelle Obama's lack of pride in the US, voter indifference, torture as polity, and on and on. I don't believe at any time in my lifetime I've felt so alienated from the federal government. Even during the hideous Nixon years the feeling existed that policy could be changed through assembly and redress of grievances.

Now these strategies of a bygone era seem to be worthless (quaint, if you will): It's essentially impossible to sue the government and certainly impossible (even through FOIA petitions) to look at documents that the feds have determined are "secret" (read "treasonous").

I hope the situation gets better. Indeed, Barack Obama's entire campaign revolves around the idea that improvements will occur, but it will no doubt take the country a long time (longer than I have left to live, I suspect) to recover from this state of affairs. As long as presidential candidates are so far removed from the hoi polloi that they don't know the price of gasoline and don't even think that such ignorance matters, it's 1789 all over again.

And, like 1789, it's turned into a situation of "us" and "them."